Trotro Vibes: Apple Music shows the way
Arnold Asamoah Baidoo
Showbiz News
ONE of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, Apple Music, has launched a one-month music campaign called Trotro Vibes aimed at honouring Ghana’s rising and established artistes and the impact they have on a global scale. In view of this, Apple Music’s editorial team has selected exclusive playlists of Ghanaian music including Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Efya and M.anifest for users across the globe.
Others are Camidoh, Cina Soul, Yaw Tog, Kwesi Arthur, Black Sherif and King Promise and others.
The gesture from the streaming app is exemplary, encouraging and an eye-opener to many institutions in Ghana who have the power and privilege to project Ghanaian music and the purveyors.
Ghana Music Must Play
Ideally, music made and produced by Ghanaians need the maximum airplay and projection and it must not just be for a period of one month.
Some critics propound loosely that we do not have enough songs to play on our airwaves for a period of 12 months. Myopic!
Songs from just the younger generation of Ghanaian artistes can easily fill the space for a whole year without any challenges. The point is; we have enough homegrown artistes and quality music that can be projected for quite a long time.
It is the responsibility of industry stakeholders and other institutions in critical positions to ensure Ghanaian artistes and their songs get the maximum attention and to that pedestal.
The essence of having homegrown talent do well is the reason some countries have it as part of their legislature to have a dominant play of their music than any other. In Ghana, we are still grappling with that move.
Apple Music Up the Ante
Tshwanelo Maredi, Sub-Saharan Africa music editor at Apple Music, shared the news via her LinkedIn account on Monday, March 6, which marked Ghana’s Independence Day.
“To celebrate Independence Day in Ghana, Apple Music is honouring Ghana’s Independence with Trotro Vibes to celebrate the artists that have grown to become a thriving industry for young creatives today”, Maredi said.
Named after Ghana’s popular means of transport, Trotro, Trotro Vibes will also feature music content, original interviews and what Apple Music calls ‘essential releases’ from the artistes who propel the culture forward.
Apple Music was under no obligation to initiate such a move but they did. The gesture is that recognition they give to the relevance Ghanaian artistes bring to the platform. The initiative is an ode to Ghanaian music and the exploits it does on that app, regardless of its impact.
For that internationally recognised and heavily patronised platform to give room and attention to Ghanaian music and its artistes for a whole month is a big plus.
Ghanaian Media Sleeping
For years, the advocacy has been for the media fraternity to play more Ghanaian music and to give the artistes all the needed attention but that has not sufficed—primarily because there is no law that mandates any media house to give any form of extended play to Ghanaian music.
However, in the celebration of Independence Day and in the spirit of ‘Ghana Month’, the expectation was for some, if not all media houses to dedicate the month of March to the play of Ghanaian music.
Unfortunately, regardless of the much-touted exhibition of Ghanaian culture on some of these high profile media houses, none rolled out any initiative to dedicate the entire month to project Ghanaian music. None!
What is the core essence of celebrating ‘Ghana Month’ when you can’t dedicate 31 days out of 365 days to project and play only Ghanaian music?
We Need To Do Better
As Ghanaians, we tend to have this attitude of not realising what we have until a foreigner sees the potential and exploits it, then you see us running like headless chickens in a bid to jump onto the bandwagon. Pathetic!
We didn’t need to wait for Apple Music to take on such a brilliant initiative that begged to be utilised for years.
What do we lose by playing a high percentage of Ghanaian music on our airwaves and what does it take away from us to dedicate just a month out of 12 months to project Ghanaian music and Ghanaian artistes.
We must do better!
